Soil health will be a fundamental component of sustaining family farms and rural communities in the long-term. A healthy functioning soil provides numerous local ecosystem benefits in your own community including improved water quality, flood and drought mitigation, and other benefits that can improve both human health and wealth. USDA-NRCS defines soil health as the […] Continue reading → 
Crop scouting in late August often will not result in immediate management decisions. However, taking notes on what you observe now can provide valuable information moving in to harvest and confirm or reprioritize agronomic goals for next year. There are many things to take note of and questions to ask. What diseases are the most […] Continue reading → 
Soybean Yield Estimation After years of frustration in trying to estimate soybean yield prior to harvest, I have created a set of resources for others to use that hopefully allow us to more closely agree with the combine and weigh tickets. Below you will find a brief video created by Market Journal explaining how to […] Continue reading → 
Out of abundance of caution with COVID-19, we did cancel the in-person option for Nebraska Extension field days and tours this summer in eastern Nebraska. However, these field days still went on behind the scenes as we recorded short videos to capture many of the demonstration plots and speakers. I want to highlight a few […] Continue reading → 
First, no one likes to see a soybean canopy devoured by Japanese beetles, grasshoppers, or various caterpillars. Second, most people overestimate the amount of defoliation that has occurred. Lastly, most folks do not like scouting several locations within a field in July/August because it is tough walking. We should tolerate some low level of defoliation […] Continue reading → 
Corn Overall, the corn crop was in pretty could shape. Growth stages ranged from V6 to V10 (page 141 in 2019 pocket guide) and ranged in height from 18″ to 30″ tall (Figure 1). Many irrigated fields had plant populations ranging in the low 30s (Figure 2) while rainfed stands ranged throughout the 20s. The […] Continue reading → 
What is new on the website? A new page about local on-farm research highlights past work done by local producers in cooperation with Randy Pryor and other UNL faculty. The on-farm research results are organized by county and year. Past studies were on cover crops, corn nitrogen management, corn seeding rates, soybean seed treatments, and […] Continue reading →